Little Farmers Cay Bahamas (Part 2)

One of our reasons for trying to head back down the Exumas chain of islands was to try to meet up with some friends.  We hadn’t seen Lars and Suzanne on Sea Wind for over a year but we knew from some SSB radio and AIS reports that they were heading towards the southern end of the Bahamas.  In addition, we also wanted to try to meet up with Anne and Jonathan on Sofia who we knew were heading northwest towards us.

Taking the saloon apart to get to the SSB radio box and then taking that apart

In the morning, when trying to talk to Lars and Suzanne on the OCC SSB radio net, the radio suddenly stopped working. It sounded like a power failure and so we wondered if one of the fuses had blown.  It turned out to be a really weird problem.

We tested the main fuse first because it was the easy one to get to.  It tested okay with a multimeter and so we moved on to pull apart the transmitter box where there are 2 other fuses.  These are hidden in the depths of the radio and the radio box is hidden away behind the saloon sofa.  It took ages to get the radio box out and then we had to take it apart very carefully to get to the fuses.  They also tested okay.  That prompted lots of head scratching; it looked like the radio had completely failed but the sound it had made when it shut down was more like a power failure. Lots more testing work later we discovered that when under load the voltage dropped right off across the main fuse. With a new main fuse fitted the SSB radio all worked fine again.  Bizarre, normally fuses either work or are blown! With the radio fixed we’d try to talk to Lars and Susanne again the following morning but, in the meantime, we felt that we should explore ashore.

Little Harbour quay

Left: the view from the bar.  Right: the Post Office

The nearest quay to which we could take the dinghy was in Little Harbour.  It has a deep dredged channel so that the ferry can get onto the quay and so we tied up our dinghy well clear of that area and wandered ashore to explore. Our main task was to find a good source of water and we had read in our pilot book that one of the restaurants has a reverse osmosis water supply and was prepared to sell potable water to visiting yachts.  We made our way up to the bar and had a chat with the owners.  Apparently, our book was out of date and a reverse osmosis system now feeds the whole island’s water supply.  So long as we didn’t abuse the privilege and take too much, free water was available on the quay.  Water supply found, we relaxed with a beer overlooking the quay area.

The quay’s water supply right next to a cascade of broken conch shells

Once our beer had been drunk, we started a series of runs from the quay and out to BV each time laden down with our collapsible jerry cans full of fresh water.  It was a bit of a pain but a necessary chore with our watermaker out of action until the generator is fixed.

A reef shark up close!!!

Sting ray

One benefit of the repeated water runs was that we saw a string ray up close.  Even better was the rare sighting of a reef shark close inshore and in very shallow water.  As you can see from the picture above its fin and tail were right out of the water.

View over the southern anchorage from the high ground

A short hike around the island rewarded us with nice views across the anchorages which had started to fill up with other yachts also waiting for the forecast weather fronts to pass us by.

In the evening we managed to get in contact with Anne & Jonathan on Sofia.  They were only about 30 miles southeast of us and so it seemed crazy not to meet up.  We arranged to rendezvous at the mid-point between us in the vicinity of Lee Stocking Island and Norman’s Pond Quay as our next stop.

We spent Wednesday on board.  With the SSB radio working again we made contact with Lars & Susanne on Sea Wind first thing in the morning and hatched a plan to meet up at Georgetown in a few days’ time.  We might even be able to get ourselves organised to do some SCUBA diving together there.  The forecast weather fronts arrived and throughout most of the day it rained a lot. We used the time well though and wrote lots of blog stuff [Ed: well overdue!!!] and waited for news from Charlotte about her job interview.  We also cooked.  I baked a loaf and made a cake whilst Nicky cooked up a great curry.  By the end of all that, the saloon had a bit of a fug with the damp atmosphere from the rain hammering down outside.

But the weather had arrived and tracked across us on time, so the plan was to move on in the morning towards Lee Stocking Island and Norman’s Pond Quay for the rendezvous with Anne & Jonathan on Sofia.

Little Farmers Cay, Bahamas